Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of individuals and communities; increasing the diversity of the health professional and scientific workforce; and addressing primary healthcare needs through programs in education, research, and service, with emphasis on people of color and the underserved urban and rural populations in Georgia and the nation. This mission is as compelling and needed in 2014 as it was in 1975, when MSM was founded. The institutional research priorities are built on the platform of developing a critical mass of minority biomedical, clinical and behavioral investigators. These cadres (i) train future generations of scientists, (ii serve as faculty role models, and (iii) pursue state of-the-art research that address the MSM mission as described above. It is our educational philosophy that academic health centers that care for the underserved must play a leadership role in biomedical/translational research, by partnering with the community to bring the necessary advances in basic science, clinical, and community medicine to these special populations.